Abstracts

Background: The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a parent-reported instrument designed to provide information on children’s behaviours and relationships. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire consists of 25 items which are grouped into five subscales: (1) pro-social, (2) hyperactivity-inattention, (3) emotional symptoms, (4) conduct problems, and (5) peer problems. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire was used to provide information on children aged 2 to 5 years in the 2006 Aboriginal Children’s Survey (ACS). Though validated on general populations, the constructs of the SDQ have not been validated for off-reserve First Nations, Métis and Inuit children in Canada.

Objectives: The first objective is to ascertain if the five subscales of the SDQ demonstrate construct validity and reliability for off-reserve First Nations, Métis and Inuit children. The second objective is to ascertain if an alternative set of subscales, using the 25 SDQ items, may be more valid and reliable for off-reserve First Nations, Métis and Inuit children.

Methods: Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to examine if the five SDQ subscales demonstrated construct validity and reliability for off-reserve First Nations, Métis and Inuit children in the 2006 ACS. Exploratory Factor Analysis was used to determine if a different set of subscales may be more appropriate for Aboriginal children using the 2006 ACS. The Comparative Fit Index, Tucker and Lewis Index, and the Root Mean Square Error of Approximation were used to assess the overall goodness of fit of the subscales. The composite reliability coefficient (CRC) was used to assess the internal consistency of each individual subscale.

Results: For the original five SDQ subscales, the CFA goodness of fit measures indicated low reliability for off-reserve First Nations and Inuit children. The composite reliability coefficient indicated that the peer problems subscale had low reliability for off-reserve First Nations, Métis and Inuit children. The emotional symptoms subscale had low reliability for Inuit children. The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) produced four subscales from the SDQ items. Items comprising the emotional symptoms subscale were identical for both the original and EFA subscale. The confirmatory factor analysis goodness of fit measures indicated that the other subscales were reliable for off-reserve First Nations, Métis and Inuit children. With the exception of the emotional symptoms subscale for Inuit, the CRC results indicated that the EFA subscales were reliable for off-reserve First Nations, Métis and Inuit children.

Conclusions: Based on data from the 2006 ACS, researchers should use caution when using the original SDQ subscales for Aboriginal children, especially for Inuit children. The original peer problems subscale should not be used in analyses of Aboriginal children due to its low reliability and emotional symptoms should be used with caution for analyses involving Inuit children. An alternative set of subscales was produced using EFA which had similar or higher validity than the original SDQ subscales and may be more appropriate for the Aboriginal children surveyed in the 2006 ACS.